A Brief Story of Jazz in the Heart of Europe

from Jazz Notes 8/4 1996

This is a brief history of jazz in the former
Czechoslovakia, goin' back deep to the 1920s, and the present Czech
Republic.

The first pioneers were bands led by R. A. Dvorský and
Jaroslav Jezek, especially the latter, whose Hot Jazz, later Swing Band, was
the basis for all following successors. Enthusiasm for jazz sounds was also
perceptible in the work of several composers of "serious music," such as
Ervin Schulhoff, Bohuslav Martinu, and E. F. Burian.

Jezek, who spent his childhood at a home for the blind, was
a very fruitful composer and his work is still very popular in performances
of our contemporary jazz ensembles. He was known as the "Czech
Gershwin."
In 1939, before the Nazi occupation, he immigrated to the U.S., where he
died in 1942.

The mid-1930s brought to our jazz scene a new ensemble
under the direction of Jan Sma, the Gramoclub Orchestra, which mainly made
public jazz concerts and recordings for the Ultraphon label. Its guiding
spirits were, besides musical director Síma, our first jazz journalist and
critic, Emanuel Uggé, who died in 1970. Baltimore-born pianist Joe Turner
recorded two 78rpm sides with the Gramoclub Orchestra, "Joe Turner
Blues"
and "Joe Turner Stomp."

After the Nazi occupation jazz flourished here. Jazz now
served as an expression of opposition to the stupid "deutsche
tanzmusik" and as a yearning for freedom. The bands of Karel Vlach,
Gustav Brom, and Emil Ludvík, Karel Slavík's Blue Music, Elit Club, and Rhythm
42, a small ensemble were well known names. A first-class arranger, mainly
for Ludvík, was Bedrich "Fricek" Weiss, who was deported to the
concentration camp Terézin, where he led the Ghetto Swingers. In
1944 he, together with his father, was transported to Auschwitz and directly
to the gas chamber.

Shortly after World War II was a more intensive and more
favorable time for jazz. The leading orchestras in Prague were: Karel
Vlach's, with new personnel, Prof. Ladislav Habart's Big Band, and Kamil
Behounek Big Band, which played for AFN Pilsen and, later, in G.I.'s clubs
and camps in the U.S. Zone in Germany. Gustav Brom's band performed in Brno
and Bratislava and for several months in 1947 in Switzerland. In Prague's
jazz club Pygmalion that same year and in 1948, Rhythm, the first bebop
pioneers here, appeared with legendary trumpet man Lumír "Dunca" Broz,
Dr. Jan Hammer, bass and vibes, and singer Vlasta Pruchová, who later
became Hammer's wife and mother of keyboardist Jan Hammer.

In 1947 Czechoslovakia also was visited by our first guest
jazz musicians from foreign countries, such as, the Fud Candrix Band from
Belgium, the black Jiver Hutchinson's band, from England and featuring
vocalist Frankie Smith, Erik Winstone's Dance Band, also from Great Britain,
and Graeme Bell's Dixieland band from Australia.

The two-and-half years from mid-1945 to the end of 1947 was
the happiest time for jazz in the former Czechoslovakia. After February
1948 came troubles and the situation did not get better until 1955-56.

During this late-40s period Karel Vlach began to play more
dance and popular music. Only Gustav Brom, who died last year, stayed true
to jazz sounds, playing partly Dixieland and, with contributions from his
musicians, partly West Coast jazz á la Shorty Rogers.

Brom's band was a grand success and unforgettable triumph
in its first visit, in 1955, to the Fair in Leipzig, in the former East
Germany. In 1960 two broadcast orchestras were founded in Czechoslovakia,
Dance Band and Jazz Orchestra. The latter was directed by Karel
Krautgartner, who later immigrated to Austria and then to Germany. A
multi-reed player, composer, arranger, and teacher, he died in 1982.

Combo jazz was represented by Studio 5, led by Karel
Velebný, the father of Czech modern jazz. A multi-instrumentalist,
composer, arranger, and teacher, he died in 1989. Baritone saxophonist,
flutist, and arranger Jan Konopásek, now a teacher at Berklee College of
Music, was also a member of Studio 5.

More Czech jazz musicians left, mainly after the Soviet
occupation in 1968, for example, contrabass virtuoso George Mraz, bassist
Miroslav Vitous, and keyboardist Jan Hammer. Later, trumpeter Laco Deczi
and many others left. Despite this decrease our jazz life was nimble and
busy. Among the many self-sacrificing persons during this time was bassist
and singer Ludek Hulan, who led his Jazz Studio or Jazz Sanatorium and was
co-composer, with Gustav Brom's lead trumpet player Jaromr Hnilicka, of
"Egyptian Suite." The latter also composed his own famous "Jazz
Mass."

Since 1964 Prague, in the context of the International Jazz
Festival, hosts not only different top Czechoslovakian bands and combos but
also visitors from other continents. Among the first to come were flute and
reed player Leo Wright and, in 1966, the American Folk Blues Festival with
Big Joe Turner, Sleepy John Estes, Sippie Wallace, and others.

In recent years and today our jazz scene continues to be
very varied. Important big bands are Big Band Radio Prague, led by Felix
Slovacék, and Swing Band, led by Ferdinand Havlík. The former has a very
important composer in Karel Ruzicka, Sr., who wrote "Celebration Jazz
Mass"
and recorded it with opera singer Diana Bélden.

Also very famous is pianist and composer Emil
Viklický,
who wrote "Homage to Joan Miro" and recorded it with the Talich
Quartet in 1988. In 1990 he recorded his "Beyond the Mountains, Beyond
the Woods," a folklore-inspired work featuring Moravian folk musicians
and singers plus his own trio.

But the enfant terrible of our jazz life is
multi-instrumentalist Jirí Stivín, who leads his combo
Jirí Stivín and Company. In 1992, on the occasion of his 50th
birthday, he recorded live in Prague's jazz club Reduta a CD under the title
"Abrahamoviny" with his son Jirí, drums, and daughter
Zuzana, vocal.

We have jazz festivals in Karlovy Vary, Olomouc, Prerov,
Slaný, Semily, Sumperk, Brno, and several other towns.

Our one and only jazz magazine is Zpravodaj Slánského
Jazzclubu.

As for broadcast, mainly FM mode, VLTAVA brings daily jazz.
There are also Radio Journal and Czech Broadcast 2, Radio Prague, as well as
regional stations in Hradec, Kralove, Ostrava, and Plzen, some of which
present jazz regularly, some only occasionally.

Jazz is a minority art here as in other parts of the world,
but very lively, and needed for our souls.

american jazz fans have very little knowledge about jazz in many other countries. It is wonderful to read how much there is in The Czech Republic where my husband and I visit every summer. We have heard a few traditional groups and now will look for some of the more contemporary groups. It would be nice to have the history updated past 1996.... And perhaps updated lists of current CD's.